Man gets jail time for hate crime

A Superior Court judge on Monday sentenced a white supremacist gang member from Huntington Beach to two years and eight months in prison for attacking and spitting on a black man in a wheelchair six months ago in Costa Mesa.

Ronald Lee Bray, 25, pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and of making a criminal threat with a hate crime enhancement.

On July 7, Bray spat on the wheelchair-bound man and pushed him into a street light pole outside of a 7-Eleven convenience store at East Mesa Verde Drive and Harbor Boulevard. Witnesses contacted the police, saying they had seen a white man hurl racial slurs at the man and then spit on him. Initially, the victim did not want to press charges, but he did after witnesses encouraged him to help police.

When first charged in July, Bray pleaded not guilty. He changed his plea after his attorney negotiated a deal with county prosecutors, Orange County District Attorney’s spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said. Bray’s attorney could not be reached late Monday.